St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-08

time of the year" was the reply. ''This
is always the lightest month of the year
with us, but l never knew SO little travel
as there is now"
"What's the reason?"
so, think that interstate commerce
law has a great deal TO do with it,
''The interstate commerce laW?'
Yes, you see the railroads have
called i'm their passes, and great many
of those people who have travelled for
years on the railroads at no expense
other than what 1t cost them to live now
are obliged to pay their fare, and they
stay at home; that is ali there is to it,
''What class of people have dropped
off particularly?"
''Why, senators and representatives,
merchants In these small towns in the
country and editors of country week
lies. The great majority of our guests
nowadays are commercial travellers and
eXcursioniSts. Those other people who
used to jump Oh to the train, yank an
annual pass out of their pocket and
travel from one end of the road to the
other on it, are now staying at home and
attending to their business, and if I'm
not mistaken they'll be better off finan-
cially inside of two years than they
would if they had their pockets stuffed
encyclopedia laid his head on the back
of the chair and WAS just beginning to
dream when big-cheSted man yelled:
:. 'Sthere any mail for Smith?"
The clerk unfOlded himself and NUT
tering something that sounded like
always" climbed over to the mail
case and tossed out a pile of ''esses" to
be inspected by Mr.. Smith.
There are times when the hotel clerk
knows what he's talking about, and this
was probably one of the few
RATIONAL MOMENTS
he has, for it is not hard for one who
has been accustomed to look over the
scraggly pages OF the hotel register
during the past six months, to discern
that there has been a wonderful de-
crease in the number of names written
there during the last month.
The withdrawal of railroad passes has
been anything but beneficial to the
hotels and it would not be surprising.
as a prominent hotel proprietor said a
few days ago, if they were obliged to
raise the price of accommodations in
order to make both ends meet.
Two months ago one could hardly
enter hotel in st. Paul at any hour of
the day and find a lobby chair vacant
They were always filled with
Hlcu NlloSt sIs lc VI uGeSS
indicated that they were not above the
middle walks i'll life and their sun
Drowned faces and rustic airs We're proof
enough that they, for the most part,
came from the rural districts, and when
these gentlemen had occasion to exhibit
the contents OF their pocketbookS they
could show annual passes over almost
every railroad in the state. They We're
not backward in Haunting the fact that
they carried passes in your face, and
when two men met in the rot,lnda this
is about the dialogue that would pass
between them:
''Hello, John, what brought you down
here?"
20, nothing in particular. / had a
pass Oh the railroad, business was rather
quiet and l thought I'd drop down here
for day or two"
'sThat'S my case exactly"
Now these faces that were so familiar
are seen only at rare intervals. The
guests that fill the chairs to-tSay are of a
different character from those who filled
them three months ago. They are men
of good clothes, if not of good money,
and they wear the air of men who pay
their way and are there Oh business and
not simply for the want of something
to do.